Is Your Face Saying the Wrong Thing?

A few months ago, I wrote an article about the ways our emotional messages may not be viewed the way we intend. Topping the list at number one was “your own face.” I wrote that for some people, the structure of their face resembles an emotion and having the appearance of emotion on your face can confuse the viewer by sending the wrong or inappropriate message. In other words, your words may be saying one thing while your face another.
Since on-camera actors rely so much on facial communication, I thought I’d take a deeper dive into what gives some faces a voice.
Is your face speaking? Do people often ask if you’re ok, angry, or upset? One of my favorite quotes is from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” when Jessica Rabbit says, “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn this way.” Have you ever thought about how your face is drawn and what it’s saying to others when you’re just thinking or listening?
Princeton neuroscientist Alexander Todorov says, “Humans seem to be wired to look to faces to understand the person’s intentions.” According to Todorov’s findings, in as little as 100 milliseconds, we make a snap judgment about a